Most millennials OK taking confidential files home

A Harris survey suggests most people believe that confidential company information gets taken home by staff--even though 72 percent claim being caught is what they dread most. Most millennials think it's cool.

A scene from a FileTrek video. Feel his pain.
Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

No one ever said that human beings should be consistent. No one ever said that they should even make sense.

Life is a struggle and the way bosses sometimes treat their workers can be beyond any pale--beyond even the moral code of Vlad the Impaler.

Who can be surprised, therefore, that harassed workers take home confidential files in order to complete their tasks? Indeed, a survey performed by Harris Interactive on behalf of a company called FileTrek shows that 90 percent of people believe that, um, other people take confidential files home with them.

I have managed to obtain an early copy of these findings because of my well-known need to assist human beings with their schizoid tendencies.

You see, this survey also showed that 72 percent of these very same respondents say that their biggest work fear is to be caught by their boss taking confidential information home.

Hand, please meet cookie jar.

Naturally, these FileTrek people would love to make some money out of this difficult human situation. They leverage the cloud so that you, dear boss, can know just where your confidential files are at.

However, you might have some stiff adversaries, dear boss, when it comes to keeping your files confidential.

For this survey shows that 68 percent of those who are most tech-savvy--that would be the millennials--think it's just so very cool to remove confidential files and take them home. Or, perhaps, on a date with that nice boy from accounting.

Surely this is the point at which one should mention Facebook. All of this open sharing into which we are being inveigled means that the poor, downtrodden younger generations have no mental means in which to separate the confidential from the public.

About the author

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world.
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